The present invention relates to container constructions and, more particularly, to containers used for both shipping and display at the site of delivery.
The main function of a shipping container is to provide a means of enclosing and protecting goods for shipment in various sized lots. The container must be of sufficient strength and rigidity to withstand stacking and other handling loads without damage to the goods enclosed therein. Vertical loads, which occur as a result of stacking, are a great concern. Also, goods within the container may shift during handling, potentially causing abrasive wear and breakage. A standard container, such as disclosed in Bliss U.S. Pat. No. 1,974,527, reduces these problems by inclusion of a divider structure comprising a pair of separate blanks insertable into the container back-to-back to form an H-type divider. The divider separates the goods and increases the strength and rigidity of the container. Integrally formed H-type container dividers are also known. These are generally similar to the divider of the aforementioned Bliss patent, but with a pair of like divider structures being integrally hinged together instead of separate. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,149 to Fowler et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,999 to Moen; U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,678 to Jasper; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,893 to Randle.
Retail establishments expend considerable resources in the construction of displays which attract the eye of the consumer and inform consumers of the nature of the goods offered for sale. Therefore, it is advantageous if the retailer can receive goods from the manufacturer in containers that may also serve effectively as a display. To this end, several patents disclose shipping containers convertible into a display mode that allows the containers to be stacked and the goods to be seen within the containers. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,067 to Valenti and U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,299 to Edgerton, Jr. et al. These designs lack an H-type divider, and the inherent strength and stability provided thereby.
A conventional approach to shipping/display convertibility is the use of regular slotted containers (RSC's) provided with perforated tear-out sidewall panels and internal dividers. In a typical application, a bottled product manufacturer receives RSC's loaded with empty plastic bottles from a bottle producer. Upon receipt, the product to manufacturer opens the container, removes the bottles and fills them with the flowable product to be sold. Typically, a worker will manually remove the tear-out panels from the RSC sidewalls and reload filled and capped bottles into the converted display-suitable container, for shipment to a retail establishment. Full-wall panels as provided by the RSC's before conversion are desired for shipment of the empty (capless) bottles to help avoid contamination of the bottle interiors. Also, because capless bottles are typically shipped to the manufacturer upside down (as a further way to avoid contamination), the upside down orientation of the empty bottles renders them prone to falling out of a container with display gaps in the sidewalls. Full-wall panels eliminate this problem.
While tear-out panel type RSC's provide shipping/display convertibility, they do not provide an ideal solution. In particular, manual removal of the tear-out panels is costly and time consuming when large quantities of containers are involved. Moreover, the provision of separate wall panels and divider structures fails to take advantage of the fact that a divider structure is unnecessary when shipping empty (light) containers in the full-wall shipping mode. Substantial savings in material cost could be realized if a configuration was provided allowing effective conversion of a wall panel structure into a divider structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,667 to Beeby (the '667 patent) discloses another type of container convertible between a shipping and display mode. In a shipping mode, four separate scored and foldable U-shaped blanks form the walls of a shipping container comprising a base tray with abbreviated (short) walls. An identical tray is used as a cap. To achieve a display mode, the U-shaped blanks are removed from the trays, reversed in orientation and replaced back-to-back in the base tray to form an H-type divider. A drawback of the container of the '667 patent is that means such as packing tape and the press fit caps are apparently necessary to impart sufficient structural integrity for shipping. Application of packing tape and/or other wrapping materials requires additional expense and effort on the part of the product manufacturer, and, once effected, makes conversion to a display mode more difficult.